The journey to Alabasta was a lively one. Arlong was their navigator, being a fishman, the sea was his playground.

"So what's our path if we were to go to Alabasta from Sabaody Archipelago?" Luffy had a map of the world in front of him, though it was still incomplete. The woman who should complete this map is still 12 years too young to join him on his journey.

"Alright boss, so we can go through the calm belt, those who have no fruit abilities can send the Sea Kings away." Arlong looked at Mihawk and Lucci who both nodded their heads in agreement, he was busy with the rudder so he could not help with the battle. "Then we can go through th East Blue, back up to Reverse Mountain and we'll be in Alabasta in no time!"

"Good plan, but can we stop by some places?" Luffy asked.

"Well yeah of course Captain, you are the Captain after all. Where to?" Arlong asked, to which Luffy took the pencil from Arlong and marked four places.

"Ah okay Captain."

The journey through the Calm Belt was fun, as Mihawk and Lucci had some training against gigantic sea kings. The rest of the crew did their duties as Luffy watched over them, and as planned, the Strawhats bypassed the Calm Belt once more and entered the East Blue.

Now for Luffy's first destination, it was a small town right by Dawn Island. It was a little Island known as…


Shimotsuki Village

The ship docked on the only port of the small island and Luffy took Mihawk with him, for he had a plan.

The rest of the crew remained on the ship, loading up on supplies for their long journey ahead.

"Captain, who is this person you want me to meet?" Mihawk was walking beside Luffy, as they attracted attention from the villagers. Nobody has ever seen a person who carried a massive sword before, and Luffy, well he looked like a normal person to them. Little did they know…

"He's right there." Luffy and Mihawk stood in an open field, with a lone tree and a young green haired swordsman slicing at the air with three wooden swords. One in each hand and another in his mouth.

"Hey kid, your form is a bit off." Commented Luffy. He knew that this kid was not his first mate from his timeline, but maybe Mihawk can throw in some pointers to get him on a much more accelerated path.

"Shut it old man, I know what I'm doing." The young green haired swordsman responded, though his back was still turned at the two people that were trying to talk to him.

"Your swing is too wide, try it in one fell motion like this." Mihawk picked a stick from the ground and sliced at the air. The swing caused a cut in the air, causing the green haired swordsman to finally turn and face them.

"Teach me this technique!" He exclaimed.

"It is not a technique, it is the basics." Mihawk replied.

"What's your name?" Asked Luffy knowing the answer.

"My name is Roronoa Zoro and my goal is to beat a certain someone!" He exclaimed, Luffy knew who it was but he couldn't let off that he knew more.

"I am Dracule Mihawk. And this is my Captain, Monkey D Luffy."

"Mihawk, stay with the kid for a couple of hours. Then rejoin us back on the ship. Show him something good." Said Luffy as he left the two to train. Mihawk was confused on why he should train this random swordsman but it was Captain's orders.

"Alright kid, what do you know about the blade?" And so it began.

Aboard the ship of the Straw Hat crew, everyone was bored out of their mind.

"Why are we on this island!" Complained Arlong though Brulee and Hancock were happily chatting amongst one another. Katakuri was showing Lucci a breathing technique while Brook was practicing his swordsmanship.

"Make use of your time Arlong. Come join us." Responded Katakuri while Lucci was doing the breathing technique before him.

"Fine fine so what are you guys doing? It better be cool." To this Katakuri smirked, revealing his fang like teeth. None of the crew was giving him a hard time about it, none of them expected him to be perfect. It was an amazing feeling to just be himself.

"Go ahead Lucci, activate your armament haki." To this Lucci complied. And sure enough his hands were covered in resin like substance.

"What?" The strange thing was, Lucci still had his haki active, even though previously he can only hold it for 5 seconds.

"Woah teach me!" Arlong had been wasting time lollygagging that he could have used to train in learning Haki.

"Sure thing, so begin with your breathing…" The trio went to work, learning about the essential of haki through Katakuri.

It took only another few hours for Luffy to arrive, opting to rest in his quarters with Hancock.

Then, as the sun finally set on the horizon, Mihawk returned on board, with a noticeable wound on his left arm.

"Hey what happened?" Asked Brook, who was the first to greet Mihawk.


With Zoro

"Hey Zoro! We missed you in class today!" A young blue haired girl approached Zoro in the same tree that he had been training at since earlier. She held a sword in her hand keeping careful care of it.

"Ku..Kuina...my hands are still trembling with excitement. A great swordsman just showed me a couple of things.

"Like what?"

"Listening to the blade and becoming one with it..he even let me use his blade and I was able to cut him!"

"Sureeeee Zoro, anyway master is looking for us. Let's go!" Kuina held Zoro's hands and pulled him, leading the way.

A smile formed in the lips of the young green haired swordsman.

'The voice of my blade huh?...what does it mean…'


Back on the ship

"Nothing, nothing at all." Mihawk retreated to his sleeping quarters to take care of his small wound. In his mind the event from earlier was as clear as day.

He let the kid carry his blade due to the Captain seeing something in him.

He dueled the kid with using his necklace blade.

And the kid cut him by simply using the things he thought him...all within a few hours.

Whoever that kid was, he's going to be a major power in the world.

Before reaching his room, he passed by the Captain's quarter where as he passed the front of the room, Luffy opened it and greeted him with a smile.

"Captain I…." He was going to explain what happened and why he had a wound but Luffy shook his head, knowing full well the potential that the young green haired swordsman had.

"Get some rest Mihawk, we're going to move on to the next Island." With this Luffy ran to the deck and instructed Arlong on the next destination.

Just a little place known as…


Gecko Island-Syrup Village

As the sun was rising, once again the crew anchored in the distance. Luffy instructed the crew to get some supplies once more, as much as they could trade for with the villagers. The problem with the smaller towns that they were stopping at was that they had limited supplies.

Regardless, there was a reason that Luffy went to this island, and he brought Katakuri with him.

"Mihawk trained a powerful swordsman yesterday, this stop won't happen to be another training for some unknown person would it?"

"You'll see Katakuri." Luffy said with a smile as in the distance, he could see him, the biggest liar in the entire world but one of his bestest friends. He nudged Katakuri as the young man revealed himself.

"Halt!" Yelled a kid with goggles over his banana and a long pointy nose. He had his finger pointed at Luffy and Katakuri. "Pirates beware! I am Captain Usopp and I command you to return to where you came from or else…my 100,000 army will destroy you!"

"Captain, you have got to be kidding me…"

"Go ahead and challenge him." Luffy ordered to which Katakuri easily restrained Usopp, slamming his face on the ground. "Ouch, that was a bit excessive wasn't it Katakuri."

"Sorry Captain."

"Who are you people! Help! My dad is a world famous pirate! I swear he'll get you!" Exclaimed Usopp as he trashed violently on the ground.

"You're obviously hungry to get stronger Usopp, would you like to learn something that will make you a great warrior one day?" Luffy knew what Usopp would want to hear and worked to calm the young man.

"Yes show me please mister!" Usopp was released from Katakuri's grip. And he shot up jumping up and down and eager to learn.

"Katakuri, teach him what you can about observation haki." Before Luffy left, he had some words of wisdom for the young man. "Usopp, before I go, I want to tell you that whatever you learn from Katakuri today...use it, harness it and grow from it, because in seven years time, a strange butler will show up and I would like you to beat the crap out of him and tell him this…" Luffy whispered something in Usopp's ear before giving him a path on the head and similar to what he did with Mihawk and Zoro, left the two to train.

"Alright kid, the captain obviously sees something in you, but I don't know what you can learn in a few hours...but here goes." And thus Katakuri began showing Usopp the basics of observation haki.

Back on the ship

Lucci had picked Katakuri's brain the previous day for some pointers in armament haki, and now since Katakuri was brought along by the captain, he went to Hancock for some pointers in lower extremities combat, which she is proficient in.

"Your legs are four time stronger than your arms, so if you hit something." Hancock had given a rising sidekick on a wooden dummy causing a loud crack.

"Right right." Lucci was absorbing everything like a sponge. Being one of the youngest of the crew, he was eager to learn, and more importantly, he was eager to kill whoever the woman was that killed his family.

So he followed Hancocks instruction and even took note of her form and the area in which she started her momentum. Every movement had a purpose, he had to hone this.

"We'll have to hold off on the lesson for the time being, I will be retiring along with the captain for the day."

Lucci had a massive sweat drop form over his head. He understood well enough what they were doing in there. Surely enough Luffy returned once more but this time he gave out an order.

"Once Katakuri returns, Arlong please set course to the coordinates I gave you."

"Aye Captain, but this is going to the middle of nowhere."

"No It's definitely going to be a place we need to be." Luffy was immediately pulled in the room as Hancock could not wait any longer.

"Well where is it on the map?" Brulee asked as she looked at the coordinates marked by Arlong. Lucci and Brook joined them and it was just water.

Meanwhile in the room, Luffy was on a call with Aladine, once again thanking him for his help.

"Aladine, thank you for the coordinates, are you sure this is where they will be?"

"Aye Luffy, I have seen them with my own eyes. Are you sure you don't want me to help? They seem to be starving."

"No, I will go to them immediately, something needs to happen…" In his mind he finished the sentence with '...in order for him to grow..'

"Alright then Luffy, anyway I got to go. Whitebeard has assembled a massive army of all his allies, he is planning something big, call any time." And Aladine dropped the call leaving Luffy in his thoughts.

"Babe." Hancock called out to which Luffy turned to look at her.

"Holy shit…" Luffy was speechless, as all she wore were transparent bikini top and bottom.

"Do you like what you see?" She said seductively. All he could do was nod his head. "Come here and don't make me wait anymore."

And like a hungry animal, Luffy immediately went to work to please his woman.

Later that day as once again the sun disappeared from the sky, Katakuri returned.

"So how did it go for you?" Mihawk was the one to greet him onboard.

"He was able to see Luffy from hundreds of yards away...and his nose started bleeding furiously…I...I didn't want to look." Katakuri had a heavy aura about him, and Mihawk picked up on what he meant.

"Well regardless of the traumatic experience. At Least he learned.

"That he did." Katakuri replied with a smile.

Before Luffy returned to the ship, there was someone he needed to see.

So he made his way to Syrup Village, where there was the bed ridden mother of the young man.

"Hello Banchina." Luffy had knocked on the door and let himself in. The sickly woman could not bring herself to get up.

"Your straw hat reminds me of the nice red haired man who my Yasopp joined to venture off and find a cure for my disease...who might you be?" She asked weakly. She did not get a lot of visitors, mostly Usopp who is her own son, so seeing a new person was surprising, but a welcomed sight.

"My name is Luffy and I am a friend of Usopp's." He then approached her bedside, gently grabbed her hand and gave her a blue vial. "Please take this, the fish man people are so advanced that they are ahead of the human population. This medicine was created by them in order to target destructive viruses that are aggressively deteriorating the body." Luffy did not know what disease Banchina had, but he was sure from Usopp's stories that it had something to do with a virus.

"Thank you, but do not tell anyone...I do not want to give Usopp hope..."

"I understand, well I have to go, but please Banchina for Usopp...fight this, and I will be seeing you again." He replied with a smile before leaving the home. Banchina had watched the young man exit the room, thinking to herself how he was so composed and helpful even though they only just met. 'A friend of Usopp's huh…'


Somewhere in the East Blue

The next day in an unknown location in the East Blue, two people sat along a giant. One was an adult, and the other was a young boy. One with an empty handkerchief once filled with food, and the other with a big bag of what the young boy assumed was going to be food. So he plotted, plotted to get a way to take the food from the old man.

"Old man! I know you have more food, give it to me now!" The young blond exclaimed while swinging a tiny knife at the old man

"Shut your mouth boy, put that knife down and save what little energy you have!" The blonde haired pirate exclaimed as he looked at his right leg, contemplating whether to do it or not. He had given all the food that he could scavenge to the boy and kept the massive heap of treasure for himself. What good is the treasure if he was going to die anyway. He finally reached his resolve, he was going to do it, he was going to eat his own leg to survive. He forcefully took the tiny knife from the young boy and told him to go sit on his area.

The young boy was angry, but complied. Stomping his feet as he went.

The pirate used to be a captain, who transversed the Grand Line in an amazing journey. But now he was alone in this stupid rock with this stupid boy.

As he readied himself to cut his own leg for food, a hand caught his, surprising the pirate Captain. He looked up and found a straw hat wearing man holding him back, stopping him from cutting his legs off.

Was he already dead? Did he join the infamous pirate king in the after life?

"Who..." The glare blinded him, but his eyes eventually returned its focus.

"You don't need to do it Zeff." He said. The pirate infamous for his moniker, Red Leg Zeff, was astonished. Who were these people?

"The boy..." Despite nearing death from starvation, he was still worried about the young man. He looked at the boy's area and found that he was gone, panic rang in his mind as he felt like he was hallucinating.

"His name is Sanji, and he is okay Zeff. My crew had taken him and started to give him treatment. Brulee is not a doctor but she knows how to care for people." He then extended a hand towards the relieved captain. "Come join us, we'll escort you both to a safe place."

"Who are you…?" He took the man's hand and was pulled up. He walked on his own while a finely dressed man and a skeleton man picked up his treasure.

"Don't worry, all that treasure will be yours to do whatever you want with it." Luffy could see that the man was worried about the treasure, he was still a pirate after all. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy."

"As you already know, my name is Zeff, they call me Red Leg..."

"Pleasure to meet you." Responded Luffy. As they boarded the ship, Luffy already knew where their last destination would be. "Arlong set a course to Conomi Island, this time you'll be going down with me."

"Aye aye Captain!" Exclaimed Arlong, glad that he can finally have a moment to train whoever that captain was so interested in, he wonders how his trainee would be.


Conomi Island

It took the crew a few more days to travel to Conomi Island. In this time, they got to know the uncanny pair of Sanji and Zeff, who met by an act of faith. Sanji had been a cabin boy aboard a cruise ship while Zeff was a pirate captain who attacked the cruise ship. And as faith would have it, a massive storm destroyed everything, leaving the two of them as the only survivors.

As they arrived at Conomi island, a harbor was actually a welcomed sight as this Island was more developed than the other islands they visited.

Luffy was joined on the dock by Zeff and Sanji.

"In a few years time, I will be back here, by then you both will be strong enough to join me on my journey to become king."

"Sure thing Captain, I will make sure to train this kid till he can't move anymore." Zeff was carrying the sack of treasure over his shoulder while using his free hand to mess the hair of the young man.

"Whatever old man! I will be strong enough to be in Captain Luffy's crew! Just you wait!" Exclaimed the young and eccentric Sanji.

"I believe it. Remember Zeff to reinforce your floating restaurant to be strong enough to withstand an Armada. And make sure to keep strong people with you….just in case."

"No need for that Captain Luffy, I will protect everything myself." Sanji exclaimed once more. Luffy smiled at the young man's energy. "But at the same time, I will not let anyone go hungry...no matter what." He had a passionate look in his eyes, Luffy knew that look, that was the same look the Sanji of his time had when he was dead set on something.

"Then Sanji, take care of Zeff."

"Yes Captain!" Replied Sanji. Then the duo waved goodbye to the Strawhats. It was too early to have Sanji on board, and some training time with Red Leg Zeff, the legend himself, will do him wonders.

"Arlong let's go!" Exclaimed Luffy, now it was time to meet a certain young lady.

"Coming Captain!" Replied Arlong as he jumped to where Luffy was, and joined him on their walk to...


Cocoyashi Village

"That's what you get for being such a smarty pants!" Exclaimed a bigger boy, as he shoved a young orange haired girl on the ground. She was surrounded with a group of older boys who were bullying her. Eventually they got tired of pushing her around and moved on, leaving her to cry on the ground.

Luffy extended a hand to the young girl, helping her up to her feet.

"Thank you mister, hey I never saw you around before, are you a traveler?" Asked the orange haired young lady.

"I am actually a traveler. My name is Luffy, and this is my friend Arlong." Luffy had brought Arlong to the front who was scared to show his face. The stigma with fish man people was still rampant and it was unfair but that's just how things were.

"Nice to meet you mister Arlong, and mister Luffy, my name is Nami." She shook Luffy's hands and waited for Arlong to shake hers, to which he seemed to hesitate. "What are you waiting for, mister Arlong? My mom says once you shake a stranger's hands it means you are no longer strangers." Arlong took her small hands and shook it, as gently as possible. "You're funny mister Arlong. Anyway what brings you to town I can show you around if you'd like. I know this place inside and out." Nami began to speak rapidly, as a young child would.

"Well actually, it is you we will help, we saw how those boys were picking on you." Luffy said. Arlong was looking at him strangely, the look on his face was of confusion, why was this kid not scared of her, she was a fish man, humans hate his kind.

"That's because I answer all my teacher's questions...they hate me cause I answer the questions...but the teacher will not teach us more things if I don't answer...I just love learning." Little Nami said as she played with the ground below her, twisting her feet on the gravel.

"Well little one,I'll teach you some self defense!" Volunteered Arlong, feeling bad for the young girl.

"Is that so? But I was going to show you around. You sure?"

"Yeah, definitely,but it won't be easy, you up to it?" Arlong asked the young girl to which she eagerly nodded her head.

"Alright the fundamentals of fishman karate is repetition. First form your feet like so, and your hands like this..."

Luffy smiled to himself and made his quiet exit.

Aboard the ship Lucci was now picking Brook's combat brain as the two were engaged in an intense sparring match.

Lucci managed to dodge Brook's parry while the swordsman was never on the defensive.

"Why can't I get through?!" Exclaimed Lucci, Brook's sword was too quick and too accurate.

"Remember Lucci, when combating a swordsman, you must take into account that the sword is an extension of a swordsman's own limb."

Luffy returned to the ship to where Lucci and Brook continued to spar.

And business was as usual. Though Arlong returned when the moon was at its highest.

"Yo Arlong." Katakuri was on night duty. He sat at the crows nest.

"Hi Katakuri." Arlong continued to his room, where Brulee had already passed out from exhaustion of the day. But before going down to his room, he looked up at Katakuri, who was looking at the surrounding, staying alert. "Hey Katakuri...I didn't believe it at first, I thought only you guys were nice because you've seen some crazy shit in the world and I'm not really scary for being a fish man...but that kid did not see me for my race...she just listened and absorbed what I thought her...and then when she fell asleep from exhaustion I asked around where her home was and people who not even come close to me...until I finally found her home by going door to door. Her mother was nice and took her in, thanking me and asking me if I wanted some tea...well anyway, humans aren't so bad after all." Was Arlong's final comment before retreating to his sleeping quarters.

And Katakuri...in his post at the crows nest...the guise of the night sky...smiled to himself glad that his friend was coming around. He caressed his teeth, the subject of the bullying he endured in his early life. 'I can somewhat relate. The behavior against his people is taught...people are not born evil.'

Thus the saga in the East blue finally reached its end.

The Strawhat Grand Armada made some new familiar allies, had some much needed training. And was now entering the Grand Line to go to Alabasta.

But Luffy had a reason for wanting to go through the Red Line.

And as the crew descended from the massive waterfall, a certain blue whale greeted them with an angry look on its face. Scars covering its forehead.

"Hi Laboon...I'm sorry it took so long, but I'm here." Brook approached his friend.

"Boon!" Yelled the massive whale as the long lost friends finally reunited. Brook hugged the forehead of Laboon while the whale had a happy look in his eyes.

Welcome to the Grand Line.


Dawn Island - Sabaody Archipelago - Fishman Island - Foolshout Island - Totto Land - Amazon Lily - East Blue - Alabasta